Eagles rally to upset defending champs

IRVING -- Forget about carrying the weight of a 500-pound gorilla, a jinx opponent or the invincibility of Southlake Carroll.

Abilene High added another page to its history book Saturday, erasing a 12-point second-half deficit in edging the Dragons 22-21 in a Class 5A regional playoff game before an estimated 20,000 at Texas Stadium.

The Eagles (12-1) move on to a fourth-round game against Lewisville Hebron, a 35-28 winner over Mansfield Timberview. The teams will face off at 1 p.m. Saturday at Texas Stadium.

While there were enough heroes to go around, it was senior quarterback Spens Lackey who put Abilene High on his back and pushed the Eagles past the No. 6-ranked team in the country, according to USA Today.

&quot;His heart is bigger than his body,&quot; AHS coach Steven Warren shouted, wrapping up Lackey in a bearhug. &quot;He willed us to this win.&quot;

It took a memorable comeback against the gutty Dragons, playing without injured quarterback Riley Dodge, to erase the sting of playoff losses in 2004 and '05 to three-time defending state champion Carroll (11-2).

With junior Kyle Padron at the helm and Tre' Newton exhibiting the form that helped him gain 1,281 yards before being stifled by an ankle injury, the Dragons went 83 yards with the second-half kickoff to forge a 21-9 lead. Padron connected with a leaping Jared Freeman in the left corner of the end zone for a 17-yard scoring play.

AHS responded with a 69-yard drive, highlighted by Keithy Flye's 43-yard scamper, but it stalled at the 11. Brandon Hill booted a 28-yard field goal.

On its next possession, AHS drove from its 13 to a first-and-goal at the 5. Again, the drive stalled, and Hill came in to kick his third field goal of the game, a 22-yarder, to slice the AHS deficit to 21-15.

In the fourth quarter, junior linebacker Chris Williams added another big play to a season full of them. Williams stripped Newton (18 carries, 103 yards) of the ball at the Carroll 45.

Lackey simply took over the game at that point, carrying the ball on seven of eight plays. His seventh carry was a 1-yard leap into the end zone with 6:41 left. Hill, who had missed an extra point earlier, was true on this kick to put the Eagles ahead 22-21.

AHS forced a punt on the Dragons' next possession but soon after had to punt itself. Lackey's punt pinned Carroll at its 8. A sack dropped Padron at the 1, but a personal foul gave the Dragons life at the 16 before driving down the field. An unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that Williams claimed responsibility for gave the Dragons a first down at the 16 with less than one minute remaining.

Carroll seemed content to set up an easy game-winning field goal. But on the second play, the Padron mishandled the snap from center, and P.J. Butler fell on the ball at the Carroll 8, effectively ending the game.

&quot;I felt like I let everyone down,&quot; said Williams, who delivered the hit on Dodge that knocked the senior out of his final high school game with a shoulder injury. &quot;Seeing the fumble, it was unbelievable.

&quot;Even when we were down, I never felt we were out of it. Spens Lackey is the total package. There's not a better quarterback in the state. He squatted this baby and carried everyone of us.&quot;

Lackey, whose athleticism led to Abilene High's first touchdown, was having none of it. Afterward, he talked of fallen teammate Marcus Brooks with tears in his eyes and handed out credit to others.

&quot;I ran where the holes were,&quot; said Lackey, who passed for 182 yards and ran for 61. &quot;Keithy was running the ball so well that the plays were there for me. We played smart and executed well and kept playing even when we were behind.&quot;

It was Lackey who kept the Eagles from falling deeper into the first-half hole. With Dodge running the Carroll spread offense to perfection, the Dragons raced in front 14-3. Dodge, who was 8-for-8 for 126 yards before getting injured in the second quarter, threw a 57-yard scoring toss to Chris Brainard on Carroll's third play from scrimmage. After that, the Eagles failed to cash in on a first-and-goal at the 6, settling for a 32-yard Hill field goal, Dodge guided the Dragons to their second touchdown, connecting with Ethan Cunningham from the 7. It made the score 14-3 -- and went down as Dodge's last play of his high school career.

Abilene High answered with an 83-yard drive. Lackey faked a keeper, dropped back and threw a strike to Kortney McDow for a 44-yard score. McDow, who caught eight passes for 108 yards, would make another huge play in the third quarter when he pounced on a Flye fumble at the AHS 26 to keep a drive alive that resulted in Hill's third field goal. It was Flye's only mistake in a game where he rushed 18 time for 123 yards.

Classy Carroll coach Hal Wasson refused to use Dodge's injury as an excuse for the end of the season.

&quot;Life is full of adversity,&quot; Wasson said. &quot;Unfortunately, that's part of the game. We played a great team, and my hat is off to them. I wish them the best.

&quot;Coming in, we knew we couldn't (afford to) turn the ball over. We had a couple of fumbles. They didn't. We tried to kill the clock to set up a field goal. There was never any quit in these kids. That's not part of their M.O.&quot;

Warren felt the same way. While the Eagles shot themselves in the foot twice during the Dragons' last drive, he never thought they were going to lose.

&quot;I thought we would call a time out (at the end) and be fixing to block their field goal (attempt). Hey, we'll take it however we get it.

&quot;These guys set a goal in January. It wasn't to win a state title. It was to get past the third round. We thought that then we would sit down and look at it. The sky's the limit for this team.&quot;